Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Jay swirled his glass of wine. “Can your mom maybe talk to him?” He looked so pensive, his legs curled under him and one hand on the blanket. His hair was growing long, a swoosh of it falling down across his forehead. God, he was so sexy. And he was all mine.
I reached over and put a hand on his leg. I didn’t need to be touching the ground to feel “grounded.” I already had Jay.
“You mean like a buffer?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Jay said.
I smiled. “I think my mom would definitely be on my side,” I said before taking a deep breath. “But this goes a little deeper. I don’t know. It’ll need another conversation with him, fooor sure.”
“I’m sorry. That shit sucks,” Jay said. He squeezed my hand.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Things will work themselves out.”
I hope.
“Why don’t we go out tonight?” Jay said, his pitch rising, hands clapping his knee. “Let’s let loose. Let’s go to Passions. It’s a little bit of a drive, but it’ll get us out.”
Maddy winced, hand to her chest. “I can’t tonight. I’ve got a date… but you two go! Please. Go and have a kiki.”
Jay looked at me with a pair of puppy eyes that made me instantly hard. “Would you be down?”
“Fuck yeah,” I said, not waiting for a single beat. “But, uh, what’s a kiki?”
Maddy giggled. “It’s gay slang for a party.”
“Oh, okay, duh. Yeah, it’ll be fun. A kiki.”
It was Jay’s turn to laugh. “It sounds like you’re practicing new vocab in Duolingo.”
“I kind of am,” I admitted, joining the laughter.
Maddy raised her glass. “Just don’t feed the drag queens after midnight or get them wet. They’ll end up multiplying into dick-hungry monsters.”
“Noted,” I said, smiling so hard my cheeks hurt. I looked down at the pile of papers next to the wine bottle. Maddy scooped one up. “Now that we’ve got your plans for the night sorted, do you want to help us go over some ideas for our protest?” She wiggled her eyebrows and the paper at the same time.
Flashes of my dad crossed my mind. Him sitting behind his desk, red-faced and furious at me crossing the line, picking up a sign, and becoming one of the protestors he always looked down on. And for what? His animosity toward people like Jay and Maddy only made me angrier. It made my chest hot and my lungs tighten. He didn’t deserve to be sitting on all those piles of money when people that actually cared were fighting tooth and nail to better the world.
How fucked up was that?
“Yeah,” I said loudly, “let’s figure something out.”
“Perfect,” Maddy said, rubbing her hands together. The vibe started to shift. It was like we’d suddenly fallen into the center of an art heist. No one else was around. A tiny crew that was forming some cement-strong bonds. I had a good number of friends in my life, but none of them gave me the same feelings as these two.
Besides Colt, but he was like a brother to me, so he didn’t really count.
“What were you guys thinking?” I asked, scanning one of the papers but only seeing a bunch of chicken-scratch scribbles and a few cutesy hearts shaded into the lines.
They dove into their different plans. Both of them were super enthusiastic and excited about shutting this down, and that same enthusiasm started to spread to me. I began to be pulled into their plan, thinking up different ideas that would play well on social media.
Fuck you, Dad. The thought was bitter. I didn’t like feeling this way toward my dad, but this was the kind of shit I couldn’t sit back for. It was time I made a stand.
And I was going to make it with my boyfriend. Fuck it.
Chapter Nineteen
Jay
“You look great,” I said to Ryan as he stepped out of the bathroom, hair freshly styled and a slight fog from his shower drifting out. His cologne filled the room with an oaky and leather scent that made my heart start beating a little faster.
“Thanks, baby, you too.” He came over and kissed me, hand slipping under my shirt and over my back. “I’m excited for tonight.”
“I can tell,” I said, pushing my hips forward. He was already hard, which made me start swelling up. Even though we’d fooled around less than an hour ago, I was still horny for him.
My phone pinged. “Our Uber’s here,” I said against his lips, smiling, and his cock pulsed against mine.
“Damn,” he said. “Can we cancel it?”
“And get dinged on my perfect rating? I don’t think so, sir.” I playfully grabbed a handful of his crotch and squeezed. “We’ll wait for after the club.”
“Fiiiiine,” Ryan said, being extra dramatic and pouty.
I couldn’t help but laugh. God, he was so fun to be around. I kissed him again, reaching behind me and fumbling to grab my wallet off the desk. It fell on the floor. “Whoops.” I bent down to grab it. I rubbed my face against Ryan’s bulge as I went.